The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
JCU’s Flannery gets big summer invitation
Point guard, Westlake native will play for Great Lakes team in $2 million tournament
After John Carroll’s seasonending 85-74 loss to Mount Union in the Ohio Athletic Conference Championship game on Feb. 29, Sean Flannery thought his playing days were over.
After starring for four years at St. Edward High School and three and a half at John Carroll, the Westlake native planned on transitioning into coaching, so much so that he was headed to Xavier in the fall as a graduate assistant. Never once for a second did he think about playing professionally.
That was, until Jake Lorbach called.
Lorbach, a former St. Ed graduate who walked onto Ohio State’s basketball team and is an assistant at St. Ed, was putting together a team to compete in The Basketball Tournament, a 5-on-5, winner take all tournament with a grand prize of $2 million, and asked if Flannery would be interested.
A couple phone calls and one global pandemic later, Flannery is a member of Great Lakes Elite, one of the numerous teams vying to be one of the 24 teams selected for The Basketball Tournament.
“It’s awesome,” Flannery said. “Jake reached out to me a few months ago with this opportunity.
“I’ve been watching TBT games on ESPN for the past few summers and never really pictured myself in that place.”
Flannery was a threeyear starter at point guard for JCU. As a senior this past season, he led the Ohio Athletic Conference in assists per game (5.4) and was second in steals (57). He finished his career ranked fifth all-time in program history in assists (416) and seventh in steals (171).
He was a member of St. Edward’s state champion season when Flannery was a sophomore. Flannery is also the Eagles’ all-time leader in assists and steals.
The Great Lakes Elite team — which is made up of players who played collegiately
in the midwest — features former Ohio State players Marc Loving and Kam Williams, along with Marques Townes and Donte Ingram (members of Loyola Chicago’s 2018 Final Four team), Xeyrius Williams (who played at Dayton and Akron) and Malcom Walters (who played at St. Ed and Akron), among others.
“I’m a few years younger than these guys, I grew up watching Marc Loving and Kam Williams play at Ohio State and being able to be mentioned in the same sentence as them is pretty remarkable,” Flannery said. “It’s an honor and privilege and I’m trying to work out so I can be the best shape that I can.”
Normally, teams in The Basketball Tournament are divided up into eight regionals, with teams working their way up to a Final Four held in a specific host
city. While that format was initially planned for this year (with the final taking place in Dayton) the novel coronavirus pandemic has changed things.
Now the tournament will be in one location and will take place over 10 days, with all teams being quarantined in location for the duration of the tournament.
Additionally, the tournament field, which normally features 64 teams, has been cut down to 24 teams to accommodate the new structure. Tournament organizers haven’t picked a location for the tournament but have said that if any player tests positive for the coronavirus, their team will be disqualified and sent home.
The Tournament is openapplication, and teams are picked upon a variety of factors, ranging from social media following to talent on a roster. TBT CEO Jon
Mugar told USA Today that they received 110 applications for this year’s tournament. Last year, Carmen’s Crew, a team led by former Ohio State player Aaron Craft, defeated the Golden Eagles, a team made up of Marquette alumni, in the championship.
“Syracuse, Ohio State and Clemson all have teams, so they already come with some profile,” Flannery said. “During the middle of next week, the TBT committee will decide upon the 24 teams.”
Despite being the son of St. Edward coach Eric Flannery, Sean Flannery has spent the pandemic training at home, as even he’s not allowed to use his high school alma mater’s facilities.
“It’s been different,” he said. “I’ve been doing stuff at home, trying to run as much as possible. We have
a hoop in my driveway that I’ve been using. A lot of body weight workouts, running and trying to get a ball in my hands once or twice a day.”
The pandemic has also impacted Great Lakes Elite’s ability to get together as a team, as almost all the players are stuck in various towns across the Midwest. Instead of getting together to practice and learn each other’s games, they’ve been using a group chat to introduce each other and stay connected.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic still ravaging parts of the United States, TBT organizers have said that the tournament will go on no matter what. Depending on how things play out over the next two months, The Basketball Tournament could end up being one of the first live American sports to return after
the pandemic.
“You just want to get back to the normalcy of things,” Flannery said. “It’s great to see that the TBT has already said that it’s for sure happening, so it’s hype to see some sports that are for sure going to come back. The opportunity and possibility of us being one of the first sports to come back would be awesome. I’d be honored to have that privilege.”
No matter how Great Lakes Elite does, Flannery’s plan is still to head to Xavier as a graduate assistant in the fall to get a jump start on his coaching career. There’s just the chance he could end up doing it with a little bit more money in his pocket.
“I had the right connections, and someone saw the right thing in me and thought I could help this team,” he said.